Celebrando os ganhadores do Guest Review Awards 2018

Guests who do not see messages we send through extranet - one explanation

6

Zoinks

20 de maio de 2018 16:07

So, I would say 40% of my guests do not reply to the welcome message (I always ask a question in the message, too). I contacted one guest on WhatsApp and I told her to check her spam folder but still she found nothing. Then she told me that she realised that when she signed in to booking.com she used an email account which is not her usual one. Some guests do this when they sign up for things on the internet because they are afraid they will be inundated with spam. My only workaround for this situation is to use Whatsapp ad if that fails send an SMS. But it all depends on the guest having given a true contact number and a number which is a mobile phone, not a landline. Any other people have solutions for reaching guests who do not reply to messages we send through booking.com?

Comentários

Hi Joey - I've experienced the same thing where guests do not respond to my initial welcome message, which includes a polite request for the guest to provide their flight details and arrival time. Most guests do respond, but for the minority who don't, I usually follow up with a reminder/follow-up message about a week before their check-in date and do tend to get a response. They are also very apologetic because they simply forgot to respond.

I only really need to contact the guest by WhatsApp if I havent yet had a message back from them or if its a last minute booking.

But as you rightly say, there is not much you can do if the guest has used a secondary email address, or haven't provided a contact number.

I am new to this site and we have a Russian couple who has booked with us for one week. We are not an hotel, this is our home and we have opened our spare room with an en-suite to guests, but we only want people who speak English. I have left messages with booking.com, but no one is getting back to me. I have even tried to ring Russia to explain to this couple, but they are not understanding me. We are due to go on holiday soon and not back until just 2 days before they are due to arrive. I can never seem to speak with a human being at Booking.com but just keep sending me back to log in etc etc. So confusing. Please can anyone help me?

The struggle is real! There have been so many people asking for Tips etc regarding getting in touch with guests.

I normally wait for the grace cancellation peroid passes by and then I semi-spam the guest with a MSG on the Portal, and an Email saying the same thing. I give it about two hours and then I phone them to ask if they received my correspondence. It's only a once out of about 10 bookings that I find the nr doesn't work or the messages aren't going through. But then I play my favorite game of Phone a Friend and I call Booking.com to see if they can reach the guest, which they always do.

The Whatsapp and SMS is a great idea if all else fails, but at the end of the day if this keeps happening to you, perhaps you should enable the Prepayment Non-refundable policy with a Credit Card only option so you can process the card immediately. At least that way if they don't show up, you have your moneys.

In this case I would say that you need to Phone a friend at Booking.com and ask them for a Russian consultant to phone your guests.

But for future bookings... Booking.com is an International platform. That's mainly why so many Properties want to get listed on their website. So if you just want English guests... maybe you can ask Booking.com to add a Fine Print to your Description, but it won't stop international non-english speaking guests from being able to make a booking at your resort.

Good Afternoon, We find that ring the guest is always a great help, I do this 1 Week before there arrival and I send the welcome e-mail. to them on the Booking.com email address, some will offer an alternative e-mail on the phone and others are just happy with the booking.com confirmation. Guest who do not show up get charged full rate.

We are unfortunately at the mercy of the guest with online booking sites, but in the end we have had very few no shows.

Language will always be an issue but there are some awesome app translators to help.

Thanks for all the tips. But those who say that they ring guests - perhaps it is because the guests are from the same country. Telephone calls on a mobile to another country especially if the guest is talkative can easily cost me Euro 4 - and when I get paid Euro 60 for a room which includes breakfast and it is a one night stay - I am not prepared to spend even more money. When I consider, the laundry costs, water, electricity, cleaning, breakfast and especially commission I am not prepared to make telephone calls just because a guest is too lazy or incompetent to answer any of the messages I send through email, extranet, WhatsApp etc.

I rarely have to call a guest, but my phone contract comes inclusive with international minutes. In addition to that, you can make internet calls through WhatsApp and also through the Pulse app on your mobile.

Ah now I see the problem, yes. That is difficult and I agree that it would be nice to have an alternative contact method for international guests. I also don't phone any international guest because it's so expensive. Hopefully there's enough hype regarding this and a developer will create a platform to make it easier for us.

I have been with booking for nearly a year. I have had many bookings however many no-shows also. I have left messages for each guest and only those that showed up responded. This is a problem because they are blocking dates which can be available. However, because of booking policy (new to the site) I am not allowed to take deposits as yet). This policy is causing the property to lose on potential true bookings. I called booking on this, they said i am responsible to collect the funds even though it is a no-show. If i cannot get in touch with the guest how can i do that? Meanwhile, I have bookings and unavailable dates on my calendar which reduces my chances of actually getting a true reservation. I have tried calling those who did not show up but the numbers are not correct. Any suggestions??

Hi Rinaldoa - Its always frustrating when guests do not respond to messages when they make a booking.

Do you have credit card machine which enables you to take card payments? It's very important that you invest in one, because you can retrospectively penalise the guest for a no-show and charge them according to the policy you have set-up.

Of course, this is assuming the card details have already been validated and that the guest hasn't already blocked you from taking payment.

Booking will not simply allow you to cancel the reservation without a valid and justifiable reason. i.e. invalid credit card which you haven't been able to verify would be a common reason for you to cancel.

The issue is, the property is not allowed to take deposits as yet because as i understand from an agent it needs to be in place for a period of time. Therefore i cannot see any card information from the guest. Guest can, therefore, make a reservation and not show up without paying any penalty.

I would suggest you discuss this issue with your BDC Account Manager and see what they can suggest because the situation cannot go on like this. Not only is it inconvenient and frustrating having to deal with no-shows, but is having a severe financial implication on your business if you are unable to collect fees.

I have an issue with Booking.com that some reservation shows the phone number but some are not. I also tried to book my own property and even my own mobile number doesn't show up in my extranet or even Pulse. How can I contact those guest does not show up the phone number? I tried to call the booking support but unfortunately they don't want to share contact details of the guest. It's really pain to collect deposit because of no response and especially no contact details.

Really, I do not understand. We automatic, send a Welcome message to our guest. If people do not respond, what so?

Our Guest are most traveling for Holiday, enjoy the sun, the country and looking forward to next stop. We welcome people when people arrive. Few times visitor do not show up, Wups..we charge the credit card full price, its OUR policy.

If people make a reservations on a "low" priced room, and we have a better room available, we always upgrade.

And the benefit is. In the room are a pricelist, if people get a better room for a lower price, we are nice. and people are happy. One easy way to make a better "score" on Booking.com Guest reviews for "free"

Hi Lucy,
We also do send a welcome message. The issue is we cannot collect our fee for no shows because of booking policy. You are probably an established member of booking therefore you can collect deposits. We cannot as yet according to booking because we have to get established. However we are losing money because clients book reservations and block potential booking dates, these clients do not sure up. We cannot contact them, and we cannot collect fee.

What we need to address seriously is the issue of the security deposit. I have kept it to the barest minimum but I have to collect it in cash (the currency does not matter as they will get it back at the end of the stay) but I get LOTS of people who say they know nothing about it and when I show them a sample booking with the security deposit clearly listed they say something like we have no cash'. I tell them and show them the ATM just a few metres away from my place but still, they find some excuse. Since BDC collect payments for me I have asked them if there s a way for them to collect the security deposit too as I've had too many bitter experiences with the people who do not pay the security deposit, I am waiting for BDC to reply. Please, all of you do the same thing - write to BDC telling them about your security deposit problems.

Info / Lucy Has it occurred to you (1) that here there are people with 5-star hotels with 500 rooms and people with a single spare room which they rent out so some needs may be different? (2) Has it occurred to you that the way you pay tax in your country may be different from that in other countries? (3) Has it occurred to you that saying that by saying your system is 'professional' you are saying that all those who do not use ' your ' system aren't?

But with that out of the way. I'd be grateful if someone waked me through using a credit card, even though with all the comments I get here it seems like a lot of work with credits cards which do not get authorised etc. The only advantage that I have read of when it comes to using credit cards yourself is that it is easier to eliminate fake bookings. Thanks in advance!

Jory, even big or small (I have only 3 double room) its possible to take peoples paiment by creditcard.. Its cheap, easy and everybody use a Visa / Master card, ass people now use Tablet, GPS and all modern things.

After numerous attempts to welcome and message a guest , I called the guest she put the phone down on me after I greeted her and said who I was.

I then requested that Booking.com cancel the booking on 11 May and to date it is still booked under the woman in question. It is a weekend during school vacation so I could fill the cottage with a reliable guest. How do I speak to a person at Booking.com?

Also, I've had 2 x weekend "no shows" in one month for which I prepared, put fresh flowers, bought breakfast provisions and cookies for the cottage and did not receive a penny for efforts so am feeling a bit disappointed with Booking.com at the moment.

Not sure about why this is happening to you. We could process payments quite fast after creating the account.

Either way, other OTAs let you process CC right away after signing with them. I just opened an account with one yesterday and the only thing we had to do is sign an agreement for CC processing.

Your best chance is to make sure you have a system to charge the cards and discuss things with your BDC account manager. I'm sure if you put the situation right, there won't be any issue with them allowing you to receive CC info from guests.

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